


Tangled Web

by Aini_NuFire



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Curses, Family, Gen, Hunt Gone Wrong, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Protective Winchesters (Supernatural), Season/Series 14, Team Free Will 2.0, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 19:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16771177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aini_NuFire/pseuds/Aini_NuFire
Summary: When Cas gets hit with a witch’s curse, TFW 2.0 race to find a cure before the thing takes on a life of its own…and spreads.





	Tangled Web

**Author's Note:**

> Set in early season 14, but not episode related. Just a TFW 2.0 case fic that goes wrong. XD
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine. Thanks to 29Pieces for beta reading!

"Okay, so we're pretty sure Jason Hill is gonna be our next victim tonight," Sam briefed as they pulled up outside the man's address early that evening.

Castiel gave the house a cursory scan through the window of the backseat where he and Jack were sitting.

"He's got a date with the same woman from the online dating service that each of the previous victims did the nights they died," Sam went on. "The problem is we don't know exactly what we're dealing with. The victims were drained of blood, but the cuts on the throat were a little cleaner than a vampire's." He shrugged thoughtfully. "We could be looking at a demon."

"Or one of Michael's traps," Castiel put in.

"Basically, we go in armed to the max," Dean summarized, and exited the Impala.

The rest of them followed suit and gathered around the trunk as Dean started doling out weapons. He passed the demon-killing knife to Jack, while Dean and Sam slipped machetes inside the folds of their jackets. Castiel, of course, had his angel blade.

Then they approached the house and took up positions around the sides and behind some bushes to wait for the target to come home. It was only an hour later when headlights turned onto the street and headed their way. A gray sedan parked in the driveway, and Castiel pressed himself against the side of the house to avoid being illuminated.

The lights went off and the sound of two car doors slamming reverberated in the night, followed by some drunken giggles. Castiel listened to their footsteps as they walked to the front door, unlocked it, and went inside.

It'd barely been a minute before a scream issued from within, and Castiel broke cover, rushing back to the front of the house as the others did. Dean kicked in the door without pause, brandishing his machete as the four of them barreled inside.

The man was on the floor, clutching a bleeding hand to his chest as the woman stood over him with a knife. Hm, maybe not a vampire.

Dean charged her with the machete anyway. Her eyes went wide in astonishment, but she jumped back and threw a hand up, shouting a word in Latin. Dean went flying backward to crash into the wall.

Witch, then.

Sam and Jack both lunged at her, but she repeated the spell that sent them skidding across the floor.

Castiel planted himself in front of the intended victim. The witch yet again tried to cast the same spell, but Castiel shot his own palm up and deflected it with a surge of grace. She faltered at that, gaze flitting around as Jack and the Winchesters started to get up. Her expression darkened, and she reached into her bra to pull out a vial.

Castiel summoned up his grace again, intending to stop her next move, but she threw it straight at him. The glass shattered as it struck his outstretched hand, and a black sticky substance that had been inside splattered across his palm.

The witch threw her arms up with a shout, and then an explosion of smoke erupted around her, completely obscuring visibility. Castiel heard the others coughing, but in the next minute, the smoke began to dissipate, and the witch was gone.

"Wh- who the hell are you people?" Jason Hill blurted, still sprawled on the floor.

"We're the ones who just saved your life," Dean replied gruffly.

The man continued to gape at them.

Jack offered him a smile. "You're welcome."

"Wh- wh…" he continued to sputter.

Sam went over and bent down to inspect his wound. "You'll live, but you should probably get some stitches."

Castiel turned away from them and raised his hand. Black strands of cold unguent clung to his skin and had wrapped around his fingers and down his wrist. He tried to pry it off with his other hand, but it was stuck fast.

"Cas?" Dean called worriedly, coming over. His eyes widened. "What the hell is that?"

"A curse of some kind. The witch threw it at me right before she disappeared."

"Shit."

Castiel turned his hand over. The gunky strands of varying thickness had an almost obsidian shine, and though it seemed like an inanimate mess, he couldn't help but feel as though there was something more to it. Something…sinister.

"Can you wash it off?" Jack asked.

"Maybe with some purifying poultices," Sam added, coming over to join them. His expression pinched with concern.

"Alright, let's deal with this first," Dean said. "Then we'll track down the witch to finish her off."

"What about me?" Jason spoke up, only now just pulling himself off the floor.

Dean glanced over at him. "Uh, give up online dating."

Sam shot his brother a bitch-face, but schooled it before turning back to Jason. "If you have someone you can stay with, you should probably pack a bag until this is over, just in case she tries to come back to finish the job."

"Why would a witch be stealing the blood of her victims?" Jack asked in confusion.

Jason's eyes bulged.

"Probably for a spell," Dean replied, and started ushering them toward the door. "We can ask when we gank her. Cas, you okay?"

"Fine," he replied automatically, even though the treacly substance latched onto his hand was somewhat disconcerting.

He kept examining it during the drive back to the motel, and even picked at a few edges, but the stuff was suctioned to his skin like a leech. He even tried burning it off with a surge of grace, but it was like his celestial fire couldn't even get a wind. And that unnerved him more.

They arrived at the motel and filed inside the room, Sam immediately opening one of their duffels to dig out some cleansing herbs he had on hand. He quickly whipped together a paste in a bowl and brought it over.

"What's it doing?" he asked, eyeing the strands warily.

"At the moment, it seems to be blocking my grace," Castiel replied grudgingly.

Sam's jaw tightened, and he held the bowl while Castiel scooped some paste out with his unaffected hand and started to rub it on the unguent. Sam murmured a few words of an incantation that was supposed to activate the purifying elements, and then they all stood there practically holding their breaths.

Nothing happened.

The paste started to dry out, curled up, and flaked off, but the black strands remained, glossy and glutinous.

"Now what?" Jack asked.

Sam's jaw tightened. "Now we call for help."

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts, presumably looking for Rowena, as she was their go-to resource when it came to witches' spells. He lifted the cell to his ear and motioned to Dean, who grabbed his own phone and held it up to take a picture of Castiel's hand.

"Rowena," Sam said into his phone. His brow quirked, and then he rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm calling because we need your help with a spell. Yes, I used the generic counter curse remedy you gave me, and it didn't work. Dean's gonna send you a picture of what we're dealing with. It's this…thing, attached to Cas's hand."

Dean sent the photo, and they waited for Rowena to look at it. Sam switched the phone to speaker mode.

"Hm, looks like a standard leech curse," Rowena said. "It drains the victim of all their life force."

Sam and Dean exchanged a horrified look.

"How do we get rid of it?" Sam asked.

Rowena started listing off ingredients, which Sam dug through his duffel to retrieve. Fortunately, they had them all. Rowena then instructed him on what to mix and the incantation to say with it. Once the counter curse was prepared, Sam took a deep breath, and proceeded to cast it.

Castiel stared at his hand intently. The black strands had begun to ripple like sinewy veins, but instead of falling off or simply disappearing, they suddenly tightened so hard and fast that Castiel gasped and jerked backward. It felt like the bones in his fingers were being crushed.

"Cas?" Dean shouted in alarm.

The ends of the sticky gunk around Castiel's wrist suddenly peeled back, and then shot under the cuff of his sleeve. Castiel felt them wrap up around his entire arm and slither higher, squeezing with such ferocity that the shockwave reverberated down to his grace.

"What's happening?" Jack exclaimed.

Castiel clamped his other hand around his bicep, as though he could keep the curse from traveling further, but it seemed to have stopped. He could feel the strands wriggling slightly just below his shoulder before they settled.

"Cas?" Dean demanded.

"It…didn't work," he ground out.

"What do ya mean it didn't work?" Rowena said.

Castiel sucked in a ragged breath. "The curse reacted by…tapping into my strength."

"Rowena," Sam said urgently. "The curse looks like it's _grown_."

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line.

"That wasn't supposed to happen."

"You think?" Dean snapped, moving forward to take Castiel's arm in a bracing hold.

Castiel straightened, having caught his breath as the pain petered down to a small throbbing. His pulse was thudding rapidly with adrenaline and mounting fear. If they weren't able to remove the curse…could it actually drain him completely? How long would it take? What would happen to Heaven if just one more angel died? And with Michael still out there and Jack still struggling, not to mention Dean, Castiel couldn't bear the thought of dying on his family again.

Sam's throat bobbed as he held the speaker up closer to his mouth. "Rowena, we're in Halsburg, Ohio. Can you meet us?"

"It'll take me a few hours," she replied.

"Okay, yeah. I'll text you the address for our motel." He disconnected the call.

"We should resume looking for the witch," Castiel said.

Dean shook his head adamantly. "Not until we know what we're dealing with. What if she throws the same curse at us again?"

"She might be the only one who can remove it," he countered, jaw tightening with the memory of Rowena's own attack dog curse.

"We can at least work on identifying her," Sam interjected. His lips thinned as he glanced at Castiel. "Since we can't do much else until Rowena gets here. I'll try hacking into the dating site. Maybe I can trace the payment method she used to set up her account."

Dean made a grumbling noise of begrudging agreement, though his attention was still fixed worriedly on Castiel. "You okay?"

"No," he groused. He was very irked that he was vulnerable to this curse in the first place. On the other hand, it was probably better that he'd been hit with it and not one of the Winchesters, or Jack, who were very much human. "But I'm not currently dying."

Dean's expression darkened, and he finally turned away to go join Sam. "I'm gonna kill this bitch."

Castiel wished he could do something to help them locate the witch, but he still wasn't an expert when it came to hacking systems on the computer, and now that she knew hunters were after her, she'd probably avoid setting up another date so soon.

Jack shifted his weight where he stood a few feet away, looking as uncertain as to what to do as Castiel. His brow furrowed with an intense look of thought, and he kept glancing between Castiel and the spell ingredients that had failed to remove the curse.

"There must be something," he murmured, almost to himself. "An amulet?"

Castiel held back a sigh. Jack had saved that girl from a witch's curse, and he probably thought he could replicate the same results here, even though it was a completely different situation.

"We haven't tried cutting it off," Jack went on, a little louder.

Dean whipped his head up from his laptop. "I doubt a knife is gonna do it."

"What about an angel blade?"

"And cut Cas up too."

Castiel flexed his fingers, watching the strands stretch and pull like tendons. They would have to dig an angel blade in deep to get to some of the thicker strands, and causing further damage would be unavoidable. But if it worked…

"Maybe we should try," he said, and pulled out his angel blade. He turned it toward the center of his palm, but was having trouble getting a good angle in order to work the tip underneath the strands.

"I can do it," Jack offered.

Castiel wordlessly passed him the blade.

"Be careful with that," Dean warned.

Castiel shot him a reproachful glare. They were trying to build _up_ Jack's confidence.

Jack pursed his mouth, brow creasing with the utmost concentration as he inserted the blade under a piece of viscid gunk. Castiel hissed slightly when the sharp edge nicked his skin.

"Sorry," Jack gushed.

"It's fine. Keep going."

He finally got the blade wedged in enough, and made a deft upward slice that cut through the strand. Jack's face lit up with triumph, though Castiel was more pragmatic. There were a dozen strands webbing out around his arm, and if they had to cut off each and every one…

The dangling strand suddenly snapped taut, and several more pieces around his fingers abruptly detached. They shot out toward Jack and lashed around his hand. He jerked back with a yelp of surprise, dropping the angel blade.

Sam and Dean leaped from their chairs and rushed over, both of them grabbing Jack and trying to pull him away from the black gunk as Castiel dug his heels in. He grabbed at the extended strands and tried to yank them back, but they clung fast to Jack's skin. He pulled harder with every ounce of desperate strength he had.

Finally the strands snapped free of Jack and recoiled like a bungee cord, slapping around Castiel's other hand and wrapping tightly. He stumbled back from the force, the backs of his legs hitting the bed and almost tripping him.

Jack and the Winchesters nearly went sprawling as they were suddenly released.

Castiel tried to tug his arms free, but while the sticky substance stretched a little bit, both his hands were essentially bound together now.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, looking Jack over frantically.

The boy gave a shaky nod. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Dean turned to Castiel, worried gaze going to his hands. "Cas?"

He moved forward and started to reach out, but Castiel wrenched away, half turning to keep his hands shielded from them.

"Stay back!" he warned. "Don't- don't come any closer."

His heart was jackhammering with horror at what had just happened. What had almost happened.

Dean stopped, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

"Maybe we should just wait for Rowena," Sam said after a moment of tense silence.

Castiel nodded. "You should leave."

"We're not leaving," Dean immediately started, but Castiel cut off his protest.

"We can't risk this thing spreading to any of you."

"Maybe it was just a self-defense mechanism because Jack cut it," Sam put in.

"I'm not willing to take that chance," Castiel rejoined.

It was bad enough being susceptible to a witch's curse, but a curse that could make him _hurt_ those around him, hurt his family…that was the one thing that terrified Castiel more than anything.

"You need to leave," he reiterated firmly.

"We're still looking for the witch," Dean continued to argue.

"Sam can get WiFi outside. Dean, _please_."

Dean bit back whatever he was going to say next, and his expression sobered with understanding as he stared back at Castiel. "Fine," he bit out, and turned to shove his laptop into one of their bags. "But you _call_ us if anything happens."

Castiel nodded.

"We can go back to Jason's house," Sam suggested. "If he's still there, we can ask him if he learned anything from his date that might be helpful in locating her."

"Whatever," Dean grumbled, and marched outside.

Sam cast a sympathetic look at Castiel before following.

Jack hesitated, but then started after them. He paused at the door to glance back, though, eyes laden with dejection and remorse.

Castiel wanted to tell the boy it wasn't his fault, but knew it wouldn't get through, not until the situation was resolved and Castiel was alright.

When the door shut behind them, his shoulders sagged in both relief and a wave of loneliness. It seemed to be the theme of his life—his very presence somehow being a threat to his loved ones and the only way to protect them was to distance himself.

After several minutes, he idly went over to the table where Sam had left out the ingredients for the counter curse. Castiel considered mixing it up and trying again, but when he tugged at the gummy web binding his hands, he realized it'd be too arduous trying to handle the various vials and pouches.

With a frustrated sigh, he turned and started to pace. He hated this feeling of helplessness. He also hated waiting. Funny, he used to do nothing but wait, watching the Earth from above, waiting for the orders that would finally send him into battle. He'd changed a lot since then.

Castiel was dragged from his thoughts by a pulsing shudder down the gluey strands, and then the ends were stretching out and crawling their way up along his shoulder. He instinctively shot his hands up to try to claw them off, but the sticky pieces just started to bind together, and he yanked his arms down before they could get stuck to his shoulder.

He backed into the wall and doubled over as the webbing probed cold vines across his collar bone and down his chest. He felt them writhe and undulate as they suctioned out his strength, and his vision blurred. He only vaguely remembered he'd promised to call before he collapsed into darkness.

* * *

Interviewing Jason Hill was a bust. Dean hadn't expected differently, but they'd needed something to do while they waited for Rowena to arrive. Sam hadn't found anything through the dating website, either. The witch had used a fake credit card, of course.

But Rowena had finally called to say she was in town, and so they headed back to the motel to meet her there. She was waiting in the parking lot when they pulled in.

"Boys," she greeted.

"Rowena," Sam replied.

"Where's our favorite angel?"

"Inside," Dean said. "The curse tried to jump to Jack, and Cas thought it was best if we didn't stay too close."

Rowena frowned. "Tried to jump to another person, you say? The leech curse isn't supposed to do that."

"Maybe you're wrong about it being a leech curse," Dean rejoined. "Since the counter curse didn't work either."

Rowena lifted her chin haughtily. "Well, I did only have the picture you sent to go on."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam interrupted impatiently. "Let's just go inside and figure this out."

Dean shook his head in annoyance, but started heading toward the room. Cas hadn't called while they were gone, so he hoped the stubborn angel would be just as they'd left him.

But the moment Dean opened the door, he froze, eyes blowing wide in horror.

The black goop that'd been stuck to Cas's hand was now _all over_ two of the walls, stretching up and down and to the sides like a thick, viscous web.

Dean's gaze snapped downward where he spotted Cas on the floor, slumped against the wall and unconscious. The treacly unguent was wrapped around his neck and sticking in his hair as it spread from him to the walls.

"Oh my god," Sam uttered.

Dean was about to surge forward, but suddenly some of the strands wrenched away from the wall with a squelch and shot toward them. He slammed the door and stumbled back, staring in stupor as several thwacks hit the other side before quieting down.

"Rowena," Sam sputtered.

She blinked dubiously. "I've never seen anything like it."

Dean whirled on her. "What?"

"We need to find the witch who cast the spell if we want to undo it," she said.

Dean clenched his fists. "Can you do that? Scry for her?"

Rowena canted her head. "Yes, I can do that."

"We need to evacuate the rest of the motel," Sam put in. "In case this thing can spread through walls."

"Yeah, right," Dean said. It was late at night, and they'd have to wake people up, which wasn't going to go over well. "Claim there's a gas leak."

Sam nodded.

"What about Cas?" Jack asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for him until we reverse the spell," Rowena said.

"Alright," Dean said. "You get started on scrying. Sam and I will clear the motel. Jack, you stay here while we track down the witch. Just in case. But don't open that door."

Jack's expression pinched as though torn, but he didn't argue. Someone had to stay with Cas…even if he was unreachable at the moment.

Dean's stomach cramped with worry as he and Sam jogged off to evacuate the rest of the motel. Rowena better find that witch, and then Dean was going to do whatever it took to make her reverse this spell…

* * *

After the Winchesters cleared the motel—which had taken some smooth talking—and Rowena located the witch, the three of them took off in the Impala, leaving Jack alone outside in the parking lot.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shivered slightly. He wanted nothing more than to barge into the room and get Castiel out of there, but he'd seen the giant web that had tangled itself around the angel and the rest of the room. Even now, the door occasionally juddered as though something were trying to get out.

Jack rocked on his heels, then began to pace to try to keep warm. Part of him wished he'd gone with Sam and Dean to help find a way to save Cas, but another part of him didn't want to leave his dad alone, even if Jack couldn't actually be in there with him. Was he aware of what was happening? He'd looked unconscious when they'd tried to go inside. What if he woke up, though?

Footsteps jolted him out of his thoughts, and he jerked his head up as a woman in scantily clad clothing was cutting through the lot. As soon as she came within fifteen feet of the motel room, the door suddenly burst open and black strands were shooting out toward her.

Jack bolted into a run, leaping forward and tackling her to the ground. He flipped over and threw an arm up, and the sticky strand latched around his arm.

"Run!" he shouted. He grabbed the demon killing knife he still had on him and sliced through the syrupy goop. The main strand retreated, but the severed part continued to squirm and wriggle on his arm, sprouting outward as though in search of purchase.

Jack jumped to his feet and ripped his jacket off before the stuff could touch his skin, and he scrambled away from it. The woman had already fled, and Jack hoped she wouldn't call the police, because the last thing they needed was more victims for the curse to seek out.

The webbing was crawling its way out the door and along the sides of the motel like ivy. Jack tried to see through the opening to catch a glimpse of Cas, but the entire interior was an inky void, as though everything within had been swallowed whole.

Jack's heart dropped into his stomach. _No_ …

* * *

Dean pulled the Impala up outside a white house with sage trim. "You sure she's here?"

Rowena huffed. "Yes."

He turned the engine off and opened the door. Good.

He'd already loaded his gun, and so strode straight for the front door. He would have kicked it in if Sam hadn't shot him a look and thrusted his chin toward Rowena. Dean stepped back and let her cast a simple unlocking spell.

Then he stormed inside, gun raised.

The witch from Jason's apartment was in the kitchen, and she startled sharply when they barged in. Dean lined his gun up with her chest.

"Ah-ah, this is loaded with witch-killing bullets," he warned.

Her eyes flashed with the spark of a fight, but before she could make a move, Sam surged in from behind and snapped the magic repressing cuffs around her wrist.

She jerked in surprise, but her petite build was no match for Sam as he wrenched her other arm behind her back and latched the other cuff.

"You're gonna remove that curse you put on our friend," he said darkly.

The witch smirked. "Oh am I? Tell me, how far has it gotten? It was my first time casting it, and I have to admit I'm _dying_ of curiosity."

Dean narrowed his eyes coldly. He'd shoot her on the spot if they didn't still need her.

Rowena entered the kitchen and started perusing the jars of blood and spell books on the table. "My, my, what have you been up to?" she hummed. She picked up one of the books and a notepad that was next to it. Her eyes widened. "It was the leech spell," she said. "At least at first. You've adapted it."

The other witch quirked a brow at Rowena before her expression slackened in dismay. "You're working with these hunters? You would betray a sister witch to them?"

Rowena shrugged blithely, but then narrowed her gaze sternly. "I'm all for chaos and mayhem, but what can be _controlled_. What you've done here…this spell is meant to spread to others, isn't it? And where does it end? Unbridled magic like this could grow to catastrophic proportions. Have you even thought about that?"

Dean thought it was ironic Rowena lecturing another witch about _responsible_ chaos and mayhem, but whatever.

The other witch lifted her chin disdainfully. "Sure, the curse could wipe out a town. It'd be like Chernobyl; no one would be able to live there ever again, and as long as it couldn't find new victims, it would just stay put."

Dean took a menacing step toward her, gun inches from her face. "You're gonna reverse it."

She stared back at him defiantly. "I can't. I don't know how."

Rowena scoffed. "A real witch would know both. You're a charlatan playing at magic you can't even control."

"I _made_ this thing," she seethed. "No one else has ever done anything like it."

"Of course, be proud of your accidental discovery." Rowena sniffed. "Honestly, I'm more impressed with the spell's evolution than your role in it."

"Okay, enough," Dean interrupted. The cat fight wasn't getting them anywhere.

The witch met his gaze staunchly. "You want to know how to stop the curse? Kill the host."

Dean stared at her. The host…? His eyes widened. _Cas_.

The witch gave him a simpering moue. "That's right. Kill the host the spell is draining, and it dies too."

Dean exchanged a horrified look with his brother. They couldn't do that.

Sam's phone started ringing, and he hurriedly pulled it out. "Jack? _What_? Okay, uh, we found the witch. We'll be there soon." He hung up and turned a harried expression toward the rest of them. "Jack says it's broken out of the motel room and is spreading."

Dean's stomach did a flip.

The woman chuckled. "Better hurry, then. If it finds more hosts, that's just more people you'll have to kill to stop it."

Dean clenched his fist. "Rowena," he said, cocking his head for her to follow him.

She raised her brows in question when they were in the living room.

"I need to know if you can do something…"

* * *

When they pulled back into the motel parking lot, Dean's heart nearly seized at the sight of the viscid black webbing forking out along the walls, some as thick as hefty tree branches now. Had it drained all that strength to grow from Cas? But if killing Cas killed it, then that had to mean Cas was still alive…

Jack was standing in the lot in his t-shirt when they parked and climbed out.

"You okay?" Dean asked, looking him over.

Jack's eyes were wide with horror, but he nodded. "I'm fine."

"Has it grabbed anyone else?"

The kid shook his head. "No. I got a few people away before they could get too close. But they might have called the police."

Who would probably come investigate soon if they got enough crazed calls about giant black Venom attacking people.

Dean turned to drag the captured witch out of the backseat. Her eyes lit up as she took in the webbing. Dean hauled her forward.

"I already told you I can't reverse it."

"I know." He gave her a rough shove, sending her sprawling several feet toward the building.

The vines immediately shot toward her, and she screamed as their sticky sprouts latched around her arms and face.

"What? No!" She squirmed, incantations spilling from her lips, but the curse didn't react except to slither around her more.

Rowena stepped forward and held her arms out, voice pitching low as she uttered an incantation. The other witch gasped, eyes blowing wide. The curse swelled, and its bulging limbs started to crawl away from the building and shoot across the lot toward her.

Dean grabbed Jack and drew him back a few feet, Sam following. Rowena kept up the spell, and soon the webbing from inside the motel was slurping out and charging at the other witch, completely surrounding her.

"Rowena?" Dean called.

"Almost," she yelled back.

Dean waited, every fiber of his being coiled tautly, until the last black strand exited the motel room and joined the writhing mass in the middle of the parking lot. In the center, Dean could see part of the witch's face, her mouth covered with the mucoid substance as she stared back at him in terror and pleading.

"Now!"

Dean raised his gun and fired a bullet through her skull.

Her head snapped back, but her body didn't fall, securely wrapped in the curse. However, in the same instant, the wriggling accumulation gave a violent shudder, and then its squirming started to lessen, and the ends began to shrivel up.

Dean watched the entire thing shrink down and curl into a crispy ball that finally disintegrated into chaff. A moment later, the witch's body crumbled into dust as well.

Dean bolted into a run for the motel room, clamoring inside and barely checking to make sure there weren't any signs of the curse still lingering about. But it seemed Rowena had succeeded in fully drawing it out into another host so they could kill it.

Cas was on the floor where they'd seen him last, and Dean rushed forward, dropping down beside him and reaching out to clasp the sides of his head.

Harried footsteps pounded up behind him.

"Is he…?" Sam asked anxiously.

Dean moved one hand down to hold over Cas's mouth. He could have wept with relief. "He's breathing." Dean gave him a small shake. "Cas? Cas."

Cas let out a low moan and his eyelids fluttered. A moment later he blinked up at them groggily. "Wh—" He tried to jerk away, but banged his head against the wall. "What are you doing? No—"

"Cas! You're okay." Dean grabbed his wrist and held it firmly, drawing Cas's gaze to it. "You're okay."

Cas stared at his hand for a prolonged moment, and his breaths started to calm down. "What happened?" he asked hoarsely.

"We killed the witch, and the curse," Dean explained.

"Are you all okay?" Cas flicked his gaze around to each of them frantically.

"We're fine," Sam assured him. "How do you feel?"

He slumped back against the wall with a tired wheeze. "Drained."

"I bet. Come on, let's get you up."

Dean gripped him under the arm and hauled Cas to his feet. His knees instantly went wobbly, and Jack jumped in to help support his other side as they guided him the few feet to the bed. Cas swayed even once he was sitting, and they both kept a hand on his shoulders.

"Well," Rowena spoke up. "This has been an adventure. Hope to not see you boys too soon."

"Thank you, Rowena," Sam said genuinely.

She paused on her way out to give him a considering look. "I'll go back to the witch's house and destroy that spell. Curses that grow out of control of even the caster aren't something to be trifled with."

And with that, she left.

Dean frowned. "Think we have to worry about her tweaking it so she _can_ control it?"

Sam sighed. "I'm honestly too tired to care about that right now."

"Will you be alright, Cas?" Jack asked worriedly.

The angel hadn't injected his opinion on Rowena possessing that kind of dark magic, and in fact looked like he was on the verge of passing out.

"Yes," he replied wearily. "I just need to…recharge my batteries."

"For a week," Dean muttered. "Can you make it to the car?"

Cas nodded, which almost pitched him forward off the bed if Dean and Jack hadn't still been bracing him. "Yes. I'd like to go home."

Not to mention they should clear out before someone called their bluff on the gas leak story.

"Okay, one more time, buddy," Dean said, and gripped Cas's arm to heave him to his feet. Jack helped, and together they got him out to the Impala.

"Thank you," he whispered once tucked into the backseat, and then promptly passed out, head against the window.

Dean grabbed a blanket from the trunk and handed it to Jack, then went to help Sam pack up the rest of their stuff in the room. Once done, they piled into the car and hit the road.

Jack had tucked the blanket around Cas and was sitting pressed rather close to him, one arm under the blanket in what looked like holding Cas's hand.

"He's gonna be okay," Dean felt the need to say.

The kid nodded. "I don't like witches," he said quietly.

Dean cocked his head. He couldn't agree more.


End file.
